The clock is counting down, and 2016 is dwindling away.  As so many would love to push it over the edge and welcome a new year and a fresh start, there are still a few days left. With the holiday behind us, most adults – young, old, single, married, parents, or not – tend to begin dreaming of the upcoming year and everything good it will bring. A new year signifies change, and a clean slate.  But so many of us parents have learned that resolutions are a lot harder to keep when trying to balance life and children.  We even try to let the kids in on creating the resolutions, but what example are we setting when these goals are forgotten within weeks of the new year?  A few years ago, someone created the hashtag MyOneWord, and I am loving the concept for myself (So naturally, I thought you all would love it too.) #MyOneWord is exactly what it sounds like: foregoing a list of resolutions and choosing one word to live by for the new year.  If you start googling, you will find thousands of word options, but I suggest you sit down and think through your choice; it will be more meaningful and lasting if you do so. I pulled out a pen and paper yesterday and listed out my own hopes and goals for 2017:

• Find a better work-marriage-parenthood balance.
• Train for a ½ marathon.
• Go to the gym 3 days a week for strength training.
• Save money to buy a house.
• Pay off my van.
• Lessen frivolous spending.
• Go on more date nights with the hubby.
• Go to bed earlier.
• Listen before talking.
• Read more books.
• Travel to visit a friend.
• Simplify the day-to-day crap.
• Continue to slow down and just be present with the kids.

There was so much more I started to add, but then I stopped and realized that enough was enough.  I’m a great mother and a wonderful wife, why am I trying to accomplish it all?  I looked over my bullet points and tried to pen the right word for my resolution.  I had trouble narrowing it down, and I wrote the following words before choosing the one I wanted to keep in mind for the next 365 days: ·       Strength: Physically, emotionally, verbally, or spiritually accomplishing something each day that makes me a stronger person. ·       Beauty:  Find something beautiful (myself, the weather, my children’s laugh) within each day. ·       Act: Stop reacting to everything around me and act instead. ·       Peace: Practice deep breaths and find peace in the hard moments. ·       Listen: Work on hearing others before inputting my own thoughts – especially with the kids. ·       Focus: Complete one task at a time until completion before moving to the next. ·       Love: Show and feel love each day. ·       Grace: Handle myself with grace. ·       Enough: Remembering that I am enough and I do not need to change to become better. ·       Growth: Work each day to learn something – a hobby, work growth or internal growth. ·       Savor: Sit and soak in a moment each day. ·       Save: Make a point to keep a financial goal in mind every day, and then put money away. ·       Connect: Every relationship needs a connection, and that connection needs maintenance. ·       Simplify: Let go of extra commitments and purge of excess crap.  Live simpler and enjoy the breathing room. ·       Happy: Find joy everyday – pursue something I love, go on date nights, play with the kids, and enjoy the wine. The beauty is that each word can embody so many categories of life. You can apply any of these to a relationship, parenthood, friendships, or internal care.  I think that’s what makes this resolution so easily life-altering; each day it can be applied how it is needed. Which word did I choose?  That’s my secret, for now.  I’m waiting to release #MyOneWord on New Year’s Day. What word will you choose?